Tag Archives: NFL

“Of all areas of life, sports should be the arena least touched by politics. For the glory of being a sports fan is precisely that we are engaging in fun and play, that we are permitted to be ‘irrational’; that is, to be Yankee or Mets fans, to love our team and to hate the enemy, without having to ground these passions in systematic, moral or metaphysical theory. So it is particularity obnoxious when the gaggle of left Puritans invades and takes over the field of sports. Which they have done, of course, with a vengeance.

The Hate Thought squad has run rampant in sports for years. Veteran and respected sports figures, such as Al Campaneris and Jimmy the Greek, have seen their careers destroyed because they gave one politically improper answer to an interviewer’s question. No one dares even explore whether or not the answers were correct; their very expression is a hate-thought-crime; unlike other, seemingly graver, crimes, from their punishment there is no reprieve.

I like to think that sports writers are above politics’ that sports and only sports fill their minds. But now, they too have succumbed, and are, in fact, viciously leftist whenever politics is deemed relevant to sports.”

I’m glad I genuinely don’t give a shit about the NFL situation right now. By “not giving a shit”, I mean not getting angry about the whole situation. I have my opinions about the whole situation, but I’m not as angry about it as it seems like everyone else is.

In fact, I actually find myself siding more with the players. I’m not going to preach at anyone, but raising awareness about police brutality should not be an issue. It especially shouldn’t be an issue if your problem with it comes from the fact that people aren’t obeying ridiculous customs towards a piece of cloth and a song. You had family that died. That’s tragic. But if you say that person died “protecting our freedoms”, why are you getting mad when anyone exercises those freedoms? I can understand that you want people to show respect to those that died believing they were protecting freedoms (whether or not they were is a separate issue). But what freedoms are being defended if people can’t take a knee during the national anthem? Or keeping their hat on? Once again, I get the whole “respect” thing, but you have to see the point that dying for freedoms is pointless if people can’t exercise them. And yes, I know, “You have the freedom to complain about people kneeling”. But I’m going to side with people raising awareness about police brutality more than I’m going to side with people who unquestioningly worship the American flag and support American soldiers, no matter how unjust their involvements may be. If you always believe that the soldiers from your country are always doing good things in the world, and are always commanded to do good things in the world, you have a very naive way of looking at the world. And for that, I side with the players. Their cause makes a HELLUVA lot more sense.

And, besides: Doesn’t the NFL raise awareness for causes? Don’t they wear pink for breast cancer awareness? Why can’t the players raise awareness about police brutality? Especially when your problem with it is that a piece of cloth isn’t being worshiped, and soldiers aren’t being unquestioningly worshiped, even though many of them come back full of guilt for the heinous acts they were “commanded” to commit? If soldiers keep coming back with PTSD because of the violence they either saw happen or committed themselves, maybe we should start asking why they are making the decisions to subject themselves to that in the first place? Why isn’t “protecting the freedoms of Americans” enough for them to avoid the PTSD of witnessing bloodshed? Perhaps that’s the question we should start asking instead of worshiping the stars and bars and those that fight for it.

And why does happiness matter? Well, if Heaven is so great, what does that really mean unless it brings one completejoy?

Is Heaven sitting around griping about the gays? Is it a never-ending Bible read? Do they sit around, constantly complaining about how corrupt the young people in Hell are?

The idea that happiness on Earth doesn’t matter spits in the face of the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden was a perfect paradise. Doesn’t that mean that Adam and Eve had to be happy? Of course, if they were perfectly content, why did they eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil? Well, to use an analogy, is it not the case that one can be having a great time, but make a grave mistake that directly affects his or her life negatively forever? Can’t a man, driving to the beach to go on vacation, accidentally strike and kill a child with his car, and thus, spend significant time behind bars?

Of course, Adam and Eve disobeyed a direct commandment. But they did not know just how negatively it was going to affect them, and the rest of the world (for the entirety of its existence). This does not mean that they should not have been punished. One, of course, can lament about “why they [we] were ever doomed to failure”, much like one can lament “why the child ever ran out in front of the car”. But what happened happened. Nothing can change it.

In saying all of this, I am very thankful that I am [no longer] like most religiousconservatives. To the religious conservatives, the entire world is a lost cause. All of us sinners are going to Hell (except for the 30 or so that meet in this specific building every Sunday). The rules and regulations to live by to avoid Hell are simply impossible to live by. It is the equivalent of a government with hundreds of thousands of various laws, most of which no citizen really understands (or is even aware of), and many of the rules are so nonsensical that it truly takes a fear of punishment to make one ever even consider abiding by them. You live in constant fear of violating even one of the countless laws, and the government of God will have no mercy on a law-breaker after one dies (which one is never sure of, so this anxiety continues in perpetuity). But the difference between government and God is that, at least to many, an unjust government is possible. But the idea of an unjust GOD is NOT possible to Christians and conservatives.

It is only by the grace of God that I value my happiness here on Earth. (I understand many will say “Well, I’m not religious, and I value my happiness”, or “But you never would’ve gone through that had you never been introduced to religion in the first place.” I’m not going to debate it here. Agree to disagree? Call me a “dumbass believer” on your own blog?) I may never know why He saved me that Hell, of believing that my suffering somehow created my path to Heaven (thus making me purposefully torture myself psychologically), but I am eternally grateful for it. Clearly, there is a difference between the paradise that Eden was and what happened to the world after the fruit was eaten; a difference between me driving to the beach, and me killing a child with my car accidentally. Me killing a child with the car didn’t create the happiness that I had when I envisioned what the beach was going to be like. Clearly.

I get to experience the goodness of God, without EVER being ABLE to “repay” Him in any way, shape, or form. There is no gift that I can give to the Almighty. I was merely given the gift of eternal life through Christ. And it wasn’t because of anything I did: it was merely because God cares about me.

I think this will, ultimately, be the only thing that keeps me from pulling my hair out when I notice government becoming more and more tyrannical, with, seemingly, not enough people realizing it. I think this will be the only thing to keep me sane if I am unfortunate enough to live through a revolutionary war, or if I am kidnapped by my government. Thankfully, if they kill me, they will have only freed me.

What’s the point of getting your picture taken with attractive cheerleaders at sporting events?

Everyone knows you aren’t dating, because they have the fucking team’s logo on their chest, and have giant, goddamn plastic pom-poms (and I AIN’T talkin’ about her boobs! <3), and you can’t grab any good bits (because that’s rape. Duh), and you aren’t going to get any casual sex or the girl’s phone number or anything. I mean, are people that fucking desperate for attention from an attractive girl? Or are they that desperate to seem masculine in front of their friends that they want to show off themselves in a picture with a sexy woman?